Good morning Everyone,
The easy route this morning would be to lap up a loud “I told you so” after another layer of the Kanu administration debacle peeled off this week. Unless you have been living under a rock, our relegation threatened Enyimba finally made its first serious move to stop the bleeding.
Kanu’s reign at Enyimba has been nothing short of calamity. Slowly, painfully, the club’s fortunes have dwindled. Embarrassment has not been in short supply. Someone reminded me of that live televised game that was abruptly cut short because someone forgot to buy gas for the generator. Yes, that actually happened. There was also the CAF Confederation Cup group game trip where the team ended up stranded in a hotel for over a week because return tickets were not properly arranged. In the chronicles of Enyimba lows, this administration kept adding new chapters. Relentlessly.
You can forgive an honest mistake. As my high school principal used to say, “First is happenstance, second is coincidence, and third is design.” What we have witnessed over the past few years was not happenstance. It was not coincidence. It was design. The signs were there from the very beginning. Only blind loyalty and stubborn folly stopped some from seeing the writing on the wall.
And permit me one paragraph of disgust for some of my supposed colleagues who kept singing the praises of this inept, naive and totally illiterate administration. Until only a few days ago, some were still writing in defence of them, urging fans to “allow them work” while the ship was clearly sinking. Pathetic. You do not clap for a man steering you into an iceberg.
Monday’s Red Letter Day saw the club’s accountant shown the exit. The things that happened under his watch, alongside Ifeanyi Ekwueme, only the Lord truly knows. The number of times injured players were dribbled into disappointment, men whose livelihoods depended on proper recovery and welfare. Abandoned. Ignored. Strung along with empty promises. That is not management. That is cruelty disguised as incompetence.
I cannot help but think of Heartland in Owerri. The Governor insisted on making Emmanuel Amuneke the all in all at the club. The story is public knowledge. Amuneke relegated Heartland. The following season, they bought their way back into the top flight. And then, unbelievably, he relegated them again. Let me be clear. Relegation is not the end of the world. Sometimes it resets a club. Sometimes it forces growth. The tragedy is when relegation produces nothing but deeper decay.
I hope we survive the drop this season. I will genuinely hurt if we do an Akwa United. But more importantly, I pray that these recent events produce real growth and real reform at Enyimba. Not cosmetic changes. Not new packaging and same habits. Real structure. Real accountability. Real leadership.
Because if this season ends in survival but nothing changes upstairs, then we are only postponing the inevitable.
Meanwhile, remember, you can purchase your Elusive copy by Solace Chukwu with a 50% discount code from us.
Back tomorrow.
Enyimba Enyi.
